Unlikely outcomes
Posted on June 19th, 2007 by Roland Krause in Evolution, PublicationsThe cosmological model of eternal inflation and the transition from chance to biological evolution in the history of life is the kind of paper that you would want for breakfast. Eugene Koonin combines a few back-of-the-envelope calculations on the absurdly low probabilities of the emergence of ribonucleotides/proteins capable of natural selection with a multiverse view of cosmology to explain why the existence of life as we know it is not unlikely.
The essay touches on the anthropic principle and I won’t be surprised if the anticreationists science blogs will have a word with him on fueling the intelligent design debate, although he states that their is no room for such quakery in this view of the world. Much of it sounds like I have heard it before; the novel elements are the numbers and the break point in evolution after the RNA world-protein world transition.
The article appears in Biology Direct, still my favorite journal for its open peer review. Again, the reviews are quite critical, including questioning Koonin’s background in philosophy. Then again, how many philosophers have his expertise in the RNA world?
June 19th, 2007 at 9:06 am
I think people tend to forget that the term PhD derives from the latin, “Philosophiæ Doctor.” In modern day usage it’s just Doctor of Philosophy, or as one Professor told me it should mean, “Philosopher of the Highest Degree.”
So, in a sense, the reviewers and Koonin are both Philosophers and Scientists — he’s just following his vocation. This may seem facetious, I’m not trying to be obtuse. I just think that some scientists, in their rush to be strict empiricists and obtain the right kind of papers for that next grant proposal or promotion, often forget that it’s always about Philosophy.
June 19th, 2007 at 9:19 am
Well said. Many scientists are probably motivated to do become some sort of philosopher early in the lives and have forgotten about it once (and if) they reach the seniority of people like Koonin.